Clifem.com blog

The serious challenge is how to arrest further degradation of forests and how to restore degraded forest ecosystems. Systematic forest management started in India in mid-nineteenth century during the British colonial rule. The forests as we see today are a result of more than 150 years of management intervention. Despite huge pressure on forests from heavy logging for revenue generation, unregulated grazing, fuel wood extraction and timber thefts, the Forest Departments have been able to save 77 million hectares of forest land from complete conversion to non-forest land use as well as huge volume of growing stock of trees, other vegetation and wildlife. However, the serious challenge faced today is how to arrest further degradation of forests and how to restore degraded forest ecosystems at a high speed to sustain forest cover and values for future generations.

Not more than 5 percent of forests are fully stocked. The Forest Survey of India, an agency of the Government of India, carries out monitoring of forest cover in India every two years. Read more